Nearly a million children who suffer the effects of domestic abuse could have been supported by schools if a Plymouth-borne safeguarding scheme was picked up by all police forces at its launch in 2011.

A recent Freedom of Information request by the BBC asked all police forces in England and Wales how many children had been supported by Operation Encompass between January 2018 and November 2018.

Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer spoke openly about his exposure to domestic violence as a child at the forcewide launch of Operation Encompass

Following a meeting to discuss the scheme and its benefits, between David and Elisabeth Carney-Haworth and MP Victoria Atkins , Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Home Office for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability, the Home Office awarded the charity £163,000 to support the roll-out of the initiative to every force in England and Wales. The money would go towards ensuring Operation Encompass could carry out an audit of existing systems and the effectiveness of the supportive interventions in place for children.

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The BBC's Freedom of Information request found that out of the 33 police forces currently running the scheme - either force-wide or piloted in cities - only 17 responded. Of those 17 - out of a possible maximum of 43 police forces in England and Wales - they found that more than 45,500 children had been supported through Operation Encompass between January and November this year.

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David Carney-Haworth noted how the Plymouth scheme began in the city with just seven schools initially, building up to 94 city schools and one Cornwall school by the end of February 2012.

Marking the 1,000th child supported by Operation Encompass in Plymouth, 1,000 children at Home Park 'turned their back' on domestic violence (Image: Penny Cross)

By July 4, 2012 1,000 children had been supported by the scheme and to mark the milestone, 1,000 local schoolchildren were invited to Plymouth Argyle's football stadium Home Park where they made the symbolic gesture of turning their backs on domestic abuse.

"If all 43 police forces in England and Wales were to fully embrace the scheme we would be supporting well over 115,000 children annually and given the we launched seven years ago we should have supported more than 800,000 children by now - and that's just the figure if the police had attended a domestic abuse incident.

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"It reinforces our view that Operation Encompass should be mandatory in every force , in every school, for every child.

"It is such a small investment by the police and schools that can dramatically improve a child's life, especially if you are that child.

Elisabeth and David Carney-Haworth, creators of Operation Encompass

"It is truly a lifetime investment into the emotional, psychological and physical wellbeing of the most vulnerable in our society - the children. It is quite simply an investment for our future.

"We know that the police in England and Wales actually attend over one million calls of domestic abuse each year yet we don’t actually know how many children are experiencing domestic abuse in these homes and schools are the only safe haven for the majority of them.

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"Over the years Elisabeth and I have come to realise that Operation Encompass has become our crusade to support children affected by domestic abuse and we will support any police force or schools to put it in place.”

Dame Esther Rantzen with Elisabeth and David Carney-Haworth during launch of Operation Encompass as a charity in 2017 (Image: Penny Cross)

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